A lot of B2B companies in boring industries are intimidated by content marketing or just skip it all together. So what you’re not writing about the newest tech gadget that appeals to the mass market? Your content might not matter to most of them, but it does matter to some—your customers and your potential customers.

Year But We're BoringI hear that complaint as the chief excuse for everyone from HVAC to Lawyers when it comes to content marketing. This post shares 3 ideas any B2B site can use to win hearts, minds and loyalty with content including;

* Take A Stance.

* Tell A Story.

* Make someone's life easier.

Of those three ideas we favor the last two and particularly like Q&A content as a way to accomplish #3.

Asking the right questions in the right way is key to online marketing success. How SMBs can compete with Amazon isn't as important as what is their why and how are they learning from Amazon's web marketing power.

Asking the right questions in the right way is key to online marketing success. How SMBs can compete with Amazon isn't as important as what is their why and how are they learning from Amazon's web marketing power.

"...inspired by the fact that much of the traffic to #TheDress story came from a single tweet, Buzzfeed cofounder Jonah Peretti told SXSW this week that he has his eyes on a much bigger prize: the 18.5 billion impressions available through publishing direct to social media. Video, meanwhile, generated more than one billion views last month—and that's not just on Buzzfeed.com but on YouTube and social media.

Marty Note: The Problem Is...The problem with finding new ways to use old ideas (interruptions and push) into the social space is efficacy gets destroyed. Brands can take over social and push message and lower connection and content value but to what end. Doesn't that path lead right back to where we are now?

I realize the challenge, but publishers need to read UnSelling by Strattten and Kramer. The book's discussio of active )push) content and media manipulation vs. passive (pull) is worth the pric of admission.

Yes, the problem is how to make a market and UnSelling makes a convincing case that your CONTENT is the way you make a market. Crate great content and people find you. It doesn't matter WHEN you publish it or where. Greatness will out and push be damned.

As our content works its way into Haiku Deck's community we see faster lifts for new content. 7 Reasons You Must Curate Content was our fastest deck to clear the 2,000 views hurdle beating Warren Buffett's Tips For Startups. Our Ecommerce Trends Deck, published this morning, may break 500 views its first day.

The team at Haiku Deck are great content curators and they support their "power users" with social shares and mentions. They do such a great job creating online community we created a deck about them too (http://shar.es/1XRNN8 ).

Use 5 Cs To Create Great Web Analytics

CombineWeb metrics never act alone so don't review them that way. Look at Traffic & Shares, Traffic & Money or Time On & Bounce. By combining metrics you see interrelationships better.

CombInside of your metrics are secret fractals or patterns so meaningful they almost bite you. When I was a Director of Ecommerce we found the 80/20 rule existed in all data sets across all segments and no matter how small we cut the sample. This means a small % of any metric makes up the majority of the benefit and its your job to find those hidden fractals.

CopyIf a competitor has a great new metric copy it, steal it and improve on it. Share your improvements back out to the world so they too can be improve upon. No such thing as SECRETS anymore.

CrumbleYour website is in a constant ebb and flow. We like to say we build sand castles on the beach and the tide is always coming in. This means you can't get too connected to or in love with anything and that includes numbers and processes. You must exist in a constant state of creative destruction to win online so crumble any cherished notions and beloved processes in order to see what is happening NOW.

CollaborateThe more you share, collaborate and give the more you win online. Your CFO is going to complain about ROI and you should smile, nod and assure him or her you will work on it. The way you work on improving web marketing ROI is TO DO WEB MARKETING. Sounds circular and CATCH-22-like you say? Good you are beginning to get it :). M

PageRank MattersWe love it when goofy stupid people say stupid things. But we hate it when friends who should know better say goofy stupid stuff. The other day at a lunch with SEOs and web marketing friends from around my Durham, NC home a friend who should know better said, "PageRank (PR) doesn't matter anymore".

I pointed out that PR is one of the few FREE and universal metrics. I went on a bit of a rant about how any metric can be modeled into significance. The new PR is a valuable, universal (everyone is treated equally by Google more or less) and FREE metric capable of helping anyone's we marketing.

This post discuses why PR is important and what THEIR (competitor) PR can teach you Google uses PR the way an instructor uses a pointer. They hold up and reward examples of what they want. If your competitor's have PR 2 to 4 points higher than you then emulate what they are doing.

Never stop at emulation. Once your site's "emulation" "cost of poker" feet are under it DISRUPT and reset your industry's deck. Emulation + disruption is one of the formulas teams I've managed made more than $30M in B2C commerce sales.

I paid for lunch to show my friend his momentary brain fart was okay (lol). M

**** Added a correction from my friend Mark Traphagen. PR, at least what you can access with free tools, is DEAD. Mark recommends the paid tool we use (MOZ.com). Shouldn't be a huge surprise that FREE is gone. All great FREE things cost money now. We've used MOZ.com for customer work, but thought we could model with PRChecker too. Not so much as it turns out sadly. Appreciate Mark's note. M

Marty NoteIf you haven't checked your Klout score recently you should. Not just because your Klout score is a good indication on your "ding the universe" mission, but also because the Klout-ers are building some cool tools.

I just used their content scheduler for the first time. I liked the ease of putting 3 Tweets into queue and their content suggestions were excellent. I have to dig around mountains of ants and termites to find content half as good.

Also like their people suggestions. Going to be interesting to see if their people recommendations follow back or if they are so big following back little munchkins (like moi) is beyond them. The recommendations were relevant and cool, so, much like their content suggestions, easy and powerful people to follow suggestions.

The tool is improving at a rapid rate (Kudos) and their focus on EASY and painless is much appreciated. So go check your Klout score and ping me and I will send you Klout Perks or kudos or whatever the hell we trade in there (lol). M

We Added a page on top gamification tools such as SweetToothRewards.com (affordable gamification), Badgeville and Bunch Ball.

We now have pages for our favorite Analytics (just added Marin Software to that list), Content Curation and Gamification tools. We will develop a "gallery" of profile pages on http://www.Curagami.com to share how and why we like THESE tools over others.

What about you? What are your favorite online marketing tools? Email to Martin(at)Curagami.com or tweet using #favtools

Active vs. PassiveScott Stratten & Alison Kramer have written a marketing #mustread. I listened to Unselling driving to Columbus to go to my monthly appointment at the James Cancer Center and that seemed appropriate in retrospect.

Appropriate because my favorite section of the book is the intelligent discussion of passive (pull) vs active (push) sales and marketing. Stratten and Kramer argue the active era is dead and gone. The key to this next era is creating such magical content seeks carry on wind provided by advocates, fans and members.

Appropriate because dropping the Kabuki theater of one's life is one of cancer's big lessons. Life is too short for BS. Marketing is too valuable for BS, so begin to ween yourself off of it Unselling explains.

WOW, perfect tie to team http://www.Curagami.com's pursuit of the ever elusive tool to make creation of online community easy for merchants. We agree with Scott's rant against automated social media.

We also agree with his stance on the ruination of social media by brand PUSH ( see another Scoop I just shared about Buzzfeed pushing brands beyond the web i.e. the ruination of social (http://sco.lt/5qettp ).

If the ONLY section you read, believe and act on is Unselling's discussion of the value of magical content as the key to market making going forward and the necessary letting go of PUSH you will be ahead of the pack when the "push is dead man walking" ax falls.

I would change "microsites" to landing pages. In a post Google Panda / Penguin algorithm change SEO era sites or pages without social support don't fly. Build a website and try and drive traffic to it. NOW tell me you want to build more than one.

That's crazy talk these days because one is more than most can handle. Liked the other 3 tips.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.